Dynamic Earth Visit Guide

The Dynamic Earth Gallery Guide is a comprehensive resource on the topic of Earth Science designed to support a visit to the Dynamic Earth exhibition at Melbourne Museum. While it can be used for a range of geology research projects, this resource provides guidance on using it to develop a classroom trivia game.

In this activity students will

• Read about sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks.
• Research geology topics of their choice and create trivia questions for classmates.
• Test their knowledge of geology in a classroom trivia game.

Suggested questions to engage students

• What are the three kinds of rocks and how are they formed?
• What characteristics can help us distinguish between different types of rocks?

What to do

• Visit the Dynamic Earth resource

Students can use the Dynamic Earth website to research questions for classroom geology trivia game.

 Put students into pairs or groups; then assign the number of trivia questions each needs to write. These questions will be handed in at the end of the research period and used for the trivia session.

Decide how your trivia game will run. Will the writers of the questions read theirs out? Will you form larger groups of students into trivia teams?

Here are some rules for writing good trivia questions for a trivia session:

• Make the question clear and easy to understand.
• Focus on one geological fact at a time.
• Turn the fact into a clear question. For example, for the fact 'Molten rock is called magma'. The question would be: 
  What is molten rock called?
•  Only use the Dynamic Earth website as the basis for your questions and answers, so other students have a chance to learn the possible answers to the trivia questions
•  Keep the difficulty and content appropriate.
• Avoid questions with multiple possible answers.

When you are finished submit your trivia questions and answers so they can be used in the class geology trivia game!